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Topography

Overview​

Topography information like Contour lines, Terrain (Hillshade and Slope) and 3D Relief helps to make a visual assessment of the lay of the land by seeing elevation, relief, extremes, steepness, points of equal height, etc.

Each feature provided by this plugin is an independent map layer that, when enabled, is displayed above or below the main map source depending on the settings.

NOTE

The Topography plugin is a paid feature of the OsmAnd app.

The Topography plugin provides access to the following map types:

  • Contour lines - vector map represented in feet or meters (Android and iOS).
  • Hillshade - raster map layer (Android and iOS).
  • Slope - raster map layer (Android and iOS).
  • Terrain map (3D) - special relief vector map (Android only).

Contour_lines_android Hillshade_android Slopes_android

info

The altitude data on the map - between 70 degrees north latitude and 70 degrees south latitude - was obtained as a result of measurements carried out by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). It used the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), the primary imaging tool in NASA's Earth Observation System.
For full information see License:

DEM (DSM) data
- ALOS DEM: The original data used for this product have been supplied by JAXA’s AW3D.
- MERIT DEM
- ArcticDEM: Porter, Claire; Morin, Paul; Howat, Ian; Noh, Myoung-Jon; Bates, Brian; Peterman, Kenneth; Keesey, Scott; Schlenk, Matthew; Gardiner, Judith; Tomko, Karen; Willis, Michael; Kelleher, Cole; Cloutier, Michael; Husby, Eric; Foga, Steven; Nakamura, Hitomi; Platson, Melisa; Wethington, Michael, Jr.; Williamson, Cathleen; Bauer, Gregory; Enos, Jeremy; Arnold, Galen; Kramer, William; Becker, Peter; Doshi, Abhijit; D’Souza, Cristelle; Cummens, Pat; Laurier, Fabien; Bojesen, Mikkel, 2018, “ArcticDEM”, Harvard Dataverse, V1
- SONNY's LiDAR DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS (DTM) OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Setup​

To display Contour lines and Terrain (Hillshade, Slope) data on the map:

  1. Purchase: OsmAnd+, OsmAnd Maps+, OsmAnd Pro purchases plans and Enable the Topography plugin in the Plugins section of the Main menu.
  2. Download Contour lines, Hillshade, Slope, or Terrain map (3D) maps.
  3. Enable and adjust Contour lines and/or Hillshade or Slope for the map view.

You can also watch Youtube Tutorial.

To display 3D Relief (Android only):

  1. Purchase an OsmAnd Pro plan that includes the Topography plugin. After purchase, the plugin will appear in the Plugins list in the main Menu. Plans such as OsmAnd+, OsmAnd Maps+, OsmAnd Pro purchases plans are suitable.
  2. Download Terrain map (3D) maps.
  3. Enable and adjust 3D Relief for the map view.

Download Maps​

How to download​

Download Contour lines, Hillshade, Slope, Terrain map (3D) (Android only) for a specific area as follows:

  • Go to: Menu → Download maps → Regions
  • Choose a country.
  • Download packages from sections:
    • The Regionwide maps section provides available maps for the entire country.
    • The Regions section lists the regions of a country. Tapping a region will show maps available for that region.

Contour lines download Android Contour lines download Android

NOTE

The download size of the Contour lines maps of mountainous regions can be rather large, and on older devices maps bigger than 2 GB might not be properly supported. We provide regional portions, so download the smallest area you need.

NOTE

For the Hillshade or Slope functionality,

  • if you are using Map rendering engine v1, you need to use the conventional Hillshade or Slope raster downloads,
  • if you are using Map rendering engine v2,
    • you can continue to use the old Hillshade or Slope raster downloads, but need activate the Development and enable its setting "Use raster sqlite for Hillshade / slope.
    • Alternatively, you can use the new "Terrain map (3D)" downloads (saving a bit of storage space), and the Hillshade/Slope/3D Relief effects can be produced from that on the device.

Meters or Feet​

Decide in which unit (meters or feet) you want to see the Contour lines and download the corresponding version of the Contour lines map.

Contour lines download dialog Android

caution

The unit variants are not interchangeable, if you need to switch from meters to feet, or vice versa, the previous version of the Contour lines map must be removed in order to download the other version.

Configure map view​

After you have downloaded the required maps, you can display Contour lines and/or Terrain (Hillshade/Slope) using the Configure map section of the Main menu.

Contour lines​

Contour lines allow you to explore in which direction and how much a surface is sloped. You can customize displaying the contour lines in terms of color, line widths, density and zoom levels at which contour lines are visible.

When using Version 1 of the map rendering engine, if the map source is any tiled map from the Internet, the display of contour lines is not supported. In version 2 of the map rendering engine, contour maps are also displayed in 3D view and 3D Relief.

To enable the Contour lines layer, go to Menu → Configure map, scroll to Topography → Contour lines, and toggle on.

Contour lines menu Android

APPEARANCE SETTINGS​

  • Contour lines - toggle on/off to show or hide Contour lines on the map.
  • Displaying starts at zoom level - minimum and maximum zoom level at which Contour lines are visible on the map.
  • Color scheme - selection of color options in which Contour lines are shown on the map.
  • Contour line width - selection of width options for displaying Contour lines on the map.
  • Contour line density - selection of options for the density of Contour lines displayed on the map: Low, Medium, High. At higher densities, the map is loaded slower.
  • Download maps - shows Contour line maps for the selected area or the nearest areas relative to the current map center to be downloaded.

Hillshade​

Hillshade allows you to explore the topography by illuminating it with hypothetical lighting which simulates shading, thus revealing relief. You can configure hillshade visibility in terms of the transparency of the shading and the zoom level at which the Hillshade will be visible.

To enable the Hillshade layer, go to Menu → Configure map, scroll to Topography → Terrain*. Tap it to open the context menu and select the option Hillshade.

Hillshade, or Slope options

APPEARANCE SETTINGS​

  • Terrain - toggle on/off to display or hide terrain data on the map.
  • Hillshade / Slope - choice to display one of the relief data types: either Hillshade or Slope.
  • Transparency - percentage scale to specify the degree of transparency Hillshade uses (default is 39%).
  • Zoom levels - slider options to specify the minimum and maximum zoom level at which Hillshade will be visible on the map.
  • Download maps - shows Hillshade maps for the selected area or the nearest areas relative to the current map center which would require to be downloaded.
caution
  • For the Terrain feature, only 1 option Hillshade or Slope can be enabled at a time.
  • If after loading and enabling the corresponding map you do not see the changes, restart the application.

Slope​

The Slope feature allows you to explore the steepness (incline) of slopes expressed in degrees of deviation from the horizontal. You can configure the Slope visibility in terms of transparency of the colors used to display the angle and the zoom level at which the Slope layer should be visible.

To enable the Slope layer, go to Menu → Configure map, scroll to Topography → Terrain*. Tap it to open the context menu and select the option Slope.

Terrain menu slopes Android

APPEARANCE SETTINGS​

  • Terrain - toggle on/off to display or hide terrain data on the map.
  • Hillshade / Slope - choice to display one of the relief data types: either Hillshade or Slope.
  • Transparency - percentage scale to specify the degree of transparency Slope uses (default is 31%).
  • Zoom levels - slider options to specify the minimum and maximum zoom level at which Slope will be visible on the map.
  • Legend - the color scale used to depict the steepness angle. For more details, refer to Wikipedia.
  • Download maps - shows Slope maps for the selected area or the nearest areas relative to the current map center which would require to be downloaded.
LEGEND

Each color corresponds to an angle of deviation from the horizontal.

Slope color legend

3D Relief​

The 3D Relief feature produces a raised relief and provides a three-dimensional representation of the landscape. 3D Relief works offline and can be used with OsmAnd vector maps or any raster maps as a Map Source or as an Underlay/Overlay. 3D Relief is an OsmAnd Pro paid feature .

To enable 3D Relief, go to Menu → Configure map, scroll to Topography → 3D Relief, and toggle on.

3D Relief

Then download the Terrain map (3D) of the regions as needed. The feature will produce map visualizations like these:

3D Relief 3D Relief

Combine layer types​

If necessary, you can combine contour lines and Hillshade or Slope layers. For example, to estimate the curvature of a mountain slope, a combination of Contour lines and Hillshade is an obvious choice. To estimate slope steepness or to find points with the same height, you can display Contour lines and Slope layers.

It is best to use a combination of 3D Relief and Hillshade. This allows you to get a more realistic and clear view of the terrain, its relief and landscape features on the map, which makes navigation and orienteering more convenient and reliable. For example, the combination of 3D Relief and Hillshade is best used in mountainous terrain, hilly areas, hiking and biking trails.

Contour lines combined with Hillshade Contour lines combined with Slope